You learn many new words on the autism journey and Echolalia is one we now know very well. Echolalia is the repetition (or echoing) of sentences back to you when responding to a question or situation, and it is something Victoria does repeatedly. It can be a cause of a lot of frustration (for us) because it makes conversation with Victoria very difficult. The only way I know how to explain it is this:
Over time Victoria has picked up a standard set of sentences for each scenario she encounters. These may be things she’s heard other people say or things she’s heard on TV. These might even be the question itself, rather than a suitable answer. These standard phrases go into her little phrase book in her head and then, when the time seems right, out they come! They make perfect sense to her even though they can seem inaccurate or inappropriate to us.
A simple example is this: If you tell a young normal child it is time for their bath they will pick up the word bath and repeat “bath!” back to you. They understand the intention of your statement even if they can’t string a whole sentence together yet. In a child with autism they are more likely to repeat the whole statement back to you: “It’s time for your bath Victoria”. They likely don’t fully understand the intent of the sentence (bath time) but recognise the scenario it is used in (it is time to do something). As well as sounding like they are talking about themselves in the third person they may repeat the same phrase in different scenarios:
“It’s dinner time!” – “It’s time for your bath Victoria”
“It’s breakfast time!” – “It’s time for your bath Victoria”
“Daddy needs a drink!” – “It time for your bath Victoria…”
Luckily these phrases do evolve and change over time (we would go (more) insane otherwise!). The latest one is that every time we are getting ready to leave the house I hear “You must keep a marmalade sandwich under your hat for emergencies”. Thanks Paddington. Thanks a lot…
One of the real challenges this leaves us with is that we are often left wondering if Victoria understood any of the question or conversation. My understanding is that she does internally, she just verbalises her thoughts in what is to us a confused, jumbled manner.
There is a lot of information on Echolalia online, but this link summarises it pretty well: https://www.twinkl.co.uk/teaching-wiki/echolalia